Forbidden Desires
by Bowman0306
Summary: Logan knew better than to want something that was bad for him...
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:** I have absolutely no idea where this story came from. I guess I've been watching too many horror movies and old soap operas lately. So, here's the result of having **way** too much time on my hands to think up crazy shit like this. Enjoy! **NOTE:** If you don't like blood, don't read. **This isn't for you!**_

**Chapter 1**

I perused the documents laid out in front of me, making sure that everything was in order. That was my job. It was what I did best. What can I say? I'm a detail guy. I looked over at my partner, Kendall Knight. "Everything looks good," I told him, looking him square in the eye, letting him know that I was being real with him.

Kendall gave me a small smile and nodded, then turned to our newest client. "All right, Bitters. Let's just make sure that we've settled on a fee here. You have agreed to pay us $100,000 to find out who's been killing vampires at the Riverfront, right? Because once you sign on the dotted line, there's no going back." Kendall looked up at Bitters' face, while I looked at what he was wearing. His tacky navy blue and red plaid blazer, white-collarded shirt and khaki-colored tweed golf pants fit his personality to the tee. Bitters, who was a bumbling, smarmy, messy, sniveling snitch of a man when he was human, surprisingly seemed even more so now that he had become a vampire, despite the fact that vampires were usually so quick and smooth in demeanor. Kendall knew better than to look into his eyes, as did I, because vampires could hypnotize you that way, and then it would be all over for you.

"The price is fine with me. My employer is good for the money, believe me," Bitters replied with a smug grin. He looked over at me, giving me a once-over. "So, Logan, are you gonna work in this shit hole with Kendall here forever, or are you going to get a job that's more…suitable for you?"

I looked up sharply, being careful not to look into his eyes and trying not to let my fear show. I bristled at the thought of him basically calling me a pussy, not suited for this bloody, scary line of work. "Nah," I answered sarcastically, "I've just fallen in love with keep your fuckin' kind in check, so I've decided that I'll just work here forever."

"Getting back to business," Kendall said, clearing his throat and steering the discussion back to the matter at hand. "I take it that your 'employer' needs to make sure that we take care of this because it's hurting their business. Not that I don't love the money, but why don't you just take care of it yourselves?"

"Oh, come on, Knight!" Bitters scoffed. "You know that we have to do things by the book, or we'll have the cops all over our asses! If this just involved vampires, then we wouldn't be coming to you guys. But because our clientele is mainly humans, we have to follow the rules. I wouldn't be here otherwise."

Kendall snickered lightly. "I know. I just wanted to here you say it."

Bitters stiffened in his seat and growled and I grabbed hold of the table, ready to move at a moments' notice because vampires were unpredictable and fast, and Kendall was having _way_ too much fun taunting Bitters. Taunting Bitters the human was one thing; taunting Bitters the vampire was another matter _entirely_. I made a mental note to have a talk with Kendall about that when Bitters left. "Do you want to do business or not?"

Kendall looked over at me, and I nodded my approval. While I didn't trust Bitters, or any vampire for that matter, we needed the money. Running a supernatural detective agency wasn't the most lucrative business, and we were behind on bills.

"Looks like we have a deal, Bitters," Kendall answered.

I shoved the paperwork across the table for Bitters to initial and sign, which he did without reading the contract. _Idiot_, the lawyer in me couldn't help but think. You never sign anything without reading it, but, hey, if he didn't want to read it, hell, I couldn't make him.

Bitters passed the contract back to me after he signed it, and I got up and walked to the front of our tiny office, giving the paperwork to Katie. She was Kendall's sister and the person who kept this place running. She gave me a questioning look, to which I gave her an 'I'll explain later' look. I stood there while Katie finished making the copy of the contract, who complained the whole time that we needed a new copy machine. She handed me the copy, took the original, and started a file on it. I rejoined Kendall and Bitters, who were in mid-discussion.

"…of course, we're going to have to interview your 'employer' about what he, or she, knows. We'll also have to have access to the rest of their staff for interviews. We don't want to leave any stone unturned," Kendall added.

Bitters seemed to study Kendall and me for a moment, then said, "I think that can be arranged. Of course, it has to be done on his terms. I know he's going to insist on it."

"Woah, woah, woah!" Kendall shook his head vigorously as I braced myself for the storm that I feared was coming. "Absolutely not! Logan and I are willing to compromise when it's necessary, but we will not do _anything_ on anyone else's terms. That's not how we do things here."

Bitters looked between the two of us. "Fine. I'll talk to him and see what can be set up." He picked up his copy of the contract. "Is there anything else that needs to be covered?"

"Yes!" I damn-near shouted. "Payment, Bitters. We don't work for free. You know the deal. We told you that we demand the first-half of the payment upfront or we don't work. It was in the contract, had you bothered to read it."

I watched carefully as Bitters slowly slid his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, but stuffed, manilla envelope and slid it across the table. "Go ahead. Count it. All $50,000 is there." Kendall picked up the envelope and handed it to me to count. I opened up the envelope and pulled out the money—all $1,000 dollar bills. I counted the money. It was all there. I looked over at Kendall and nodded, letting him know Bitters was on the level, at least regarding the money.

Kendall and Bitters stood up at the same time. "Well, Bitters, I'd love to say that it's been a pleasure doing business with you, but I try to make it a habit not to lie." The corners of Bitters' mouth turned down into an angry frown. "We'll be in touch soon. Thank you for choosing the _Knight & Mitchell Detective Agency_!"

Bitters opened the office doors and walked out into the night air in a huff. I stood up from the table, with the envelope full of money in one hand, and walked over to Kendall. "What the hell was that?" I screamed at him. "Do you have a death wish? Do you know how fast that mother fucker is? He could have killed both of us in ten seconds flat, and he's a _young_ vampire!"

Kendall rolled his eyes and sighed. "I had it under control. Bitters wasn't going to do anything. He's desperate, and so is his employer."

"But that doesn't mean that he's reasonable. You should know better than anyone how they can snap at the drop of a hat!" I ran my hands through my hair and stomped off to my office.

"Oh, come on, Logan! Don't you think we need to get to work on this case?"

"No! I just want to be away from you for a few minutes because you're acting like an asshole right now. Leave me alone, and don't bother me unless it's an emergency or you've decided to apologize for acting so stupid!" I walked into my office and slammed the door, only to reopen it. "And send Katie in here! We need to discuss the logistics of this case." I slammed my office door again and sighed. I looked around my snug office, which was about the size of a walk-in closet with drab gray walls, and sat down at my desk. This case had the potential to be very dangerous, and Kendall was acting like a smartass, like it was no big deal. We had to play this close to the vest or we could end up in a shitload of trouble, dead, or worst of all, undead. I reached into the mini refridgerator I'd managed to fit into the tiny space and grabbed a Mountain Dew.

"Hey, Logan." Katie stuck her head into the door as I waved her in. "So…Kendall's getting under your skin, huh?"

"When is he not?" I pulled up the screen for my note entries as Katie sat down across from me. "I mean, I know why he does what he does, but one day it's going to get us killed. He may be a real bad-ass ex-cop and trained when it comes to fighting vampires, but he needs to start thinking more instead of looking for a fight all the time. It not helping us."

Katie sighed as she set the Riverfront killings case folder on my desk. "You know that it's just how he deals with things. After the…you know, Kendall hasn't been the same. He walks around with this chip on his shoulder and is determined to put away every vampire he possibly can. That whole smartass thing is just his way of getting to vampires that he thinks are at his mercy. You just happen to be an unfortunate possible casuality."

"Well, he's not the only person to lose someone to a vampire. My father was killed by one while he was trying to save lives in an ER. So Kendall can just cut the shit. I'm hurting, too, but I'm not stupid enough to bait a vampire."

"That's why you carry a gun at all times," Katie said with a wry smile.

"That's right." Katie and Kendall always teased me about that, but while I had some training in the art of fighting vampires, as a lawyer, I was supposed to be the 'brains' of the operation and there was no way I believed that I could fight off a hoard of them. So, I always carried my .22 millimeter pistol with silver bullets with me everywhere—even to bed. Silver couldn't kill a vampire, but it could slow their healing process down to a crawl and give me a chance to get away with my life intact. "All right, let's go over this case." I was about to open the folder when Kendall stepped into the small space, making it seem almost claustrophobic with the three of us inside of it.

"I'm sorry I was a jerk when Bitters was here, Logan," Kendall said sheepishly. "There's no excuse for baiting Bitters, under any circumstances. I will try harder in the future to do better, okay?"

I looked into his eyes, which were sincere and full of regret, and I smiled. "I can't stay mad at you. You know that, don't you?"

"So you forgive me?" Kendall sat down carefully in the seat beside Katie's.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Sure. Why not? We went into this crazy business together and we're up to our eyeballs in debt. We're stuck with each other."

"Does that mean I'm not getting my raise?" Katie asked, giving me her best puppy-dog face.

I mouthed 'yes' to her, and she cursed under her breath. "What was that?" Kendall asked.

"Nothing. Let's just get started," she said less-than-enthusiastically. Kendall and I looked at each other and snickered as we got to work hammering out the details we had on the case.

* * *

I looked up at the old, cheap clock on my wall and saw that it was 1:37 am. It was still early for my line of work, dealing with the creatures of the night and all. I stretched and took another sip of my Mountain Dew when Kendall ran into my office.

"Come on! I just got a call from Carlos saying that they've found another vampire that's been killed."

I hopped up from my desk, a sense of dread creeping into my chest. "How? Where?"

"Carlos said he was beheaded and his heart was cut out. The body was found at the Riverfront."

I cringed at the thought of seeing this crime scene. It wasn't unusual for Detective Garcia to call us from Homicide and ask for our expertise in dealing with the supernatural. "That's just great! Well, it looks like we're going to start interviewing people about this case sooner than we thought."

"Grab your gear!" Kendall yelled out as I grabbed my coat. "Katie, hold down the fort. Set the alarm as soon as we walk out this door." He gave her as stern look. "I mean it, Katie."

"I'm not a child, Kendall!"

"You're still my baby sister, so it's my job to take care of you!"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Stop it, you two!" I couldn't take the back-and-forth right now, not while I was this stressed. "We can continue this later. Dammit! This is going to be a long night." I grabbed a 12-gauge revolver and a couple of stakes, just in case things got violent, and put them in my coat.

"Hurry up, Logan!"

"Ugh! I'm coming!"

* * *

When Kendall and I pulled up to the crime scene, there were already a bunch of police cars and an ambulance and the area was roped off. We stepped out of the car and were immediately greeted by Detective Carlos Garcia, head of the newly created Paranormal Homicide Department, or PHD. Carlos raised the tape, and Kendall and I stepped under it.

"Hey, you guys," Carlos greeted us, motioning for us to follow him. "I hate for us to keep meeting under these circumstances, but what can I say? Shit happens, and it's always on my watch." I'm sure Carlos really did hate to keep meeting us like this, especially Kendall, and I was pretty sure that the feeling was mutual. Kendall and Carlos had this unspoken attraction to each other that neither would admit to, probably because of both of them insisting on being 'professional'. But they weren't fooling anyone, despite their best efforts. I knew better than to call Kendall on it because he would just deny it and we would end up fighting, and it just wasn't worth it.

"Where's the body?" Kendall asked, his voice strained. Carlos walked us over to a white sheet that was covered in blood. I could feel my stomach start to churn as I tried to steady myself for what was about to happen when the sheet was pulled back. Carlos bent down and slowly pulled back the sheet, revealing a headless vampire whose heart had looked more like it had been ripped out as opposed to being cut out as Kendall had said. "What the hell?" Kendall leaned over the body, examining it closer. "Come here, Logan. What do you notice?"

I reluctantly bent down to get a closer look at the body. There was usually a lot of blood surround vampires' dead bodies, but this body appeared to have been drained. I looked for any puncture wounds, but I couldn't find any. If they were on the neck, there was no way for me to tell because the neck was missing. "Well, aside from its head being severed and its heart being ripped from its body, this vampire was drained. However, I have no idea _where _or_ how_."

"We're going to have to wait for the Coroner's report on that," Carlos said, placing the sheet back over the body, "but I agree with you. Any idea on who could be doing this?"

"Logan and I have been hired by a mysterious new client to find out that very thing," Kendall replied.

I nodded in agreement. I was about to explain further when my cell phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was Katie. "It's Katie, Kendall."

Kendall snatched the phone from my hand and answered it. "Katie, what is it?" Kendall rushed off as he continued to talk to Katie.

I pulled Carlos aside. "Just so you know, this is a major concern for the vampire business owners here at the Riverfront, especially the one who hire us."

"Do you know who he is?"

"No. He sent one of his lackeys to do his dirty work. You remember Bitters, don't you?"

"Oh, God! Really?" Carlos' voice was full of amusement and disbelief. "Do you think you can trust Bitters?"

I sighed. "I don't know. All I know is that he came to us on behalf of his employer, offering us a large sum of cash to look into these killings. This makes, what, five now? I know that this is scaring off their business. That's why Bitters came to us."

Kendall came back and handed me my phone. "Let's go. We've got a meeting with the owner of _Plaisir_."

"_Plaisir_?" I asked with confusion and a little bit of disdain. "Isn't that the—"

"Yeah," Kendall answered with a smirk. "The most popular vampire strip club in the city."

"Oh, you're shitting me, right?" I groaned. "That's who hired us? That's just fucking great!"

"Come on. We've gotta go." Kendall pulled me by the arm. "See you around, Carlos." Kendall gave Carlos a soft, apologetic smile.

"See you 'round, Kendall." He gave Kendall an almost longing look. "See ya, Logan."

Kendall and I walked back to the car and drove to _Plaisir_. The strip club was just a few blocks away from the crime scene, so it wasn't a long ride. I couldn't believe that I had to go into a vampire strip club full of fang bangers and wanna-be fangers. "Look alive, Logan." Kendall's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

Kendall parked the car on the side of the street, and we walked to the club's entrance. The bouncer, whose muscles seemed to bulge out of his black t-shirt, took one look at us and was ready to turn us away, but Kendall held up a hand, stopping him. "We're on the list. Kendall Knight and Logan Mitchell. Personal friends of Mr. Diamond," Kendall said. The bouncer gave the list a once over, then moved aside and let us through.

Once inside, I couldn't help but admire the amount of work that obviously went into turning this club into a hedonistic, pleasurable 'Dracula-esque' escape. The dimmed lights mixed with the mist that seemed to raise from the floor gave a sense of being in a drug-induced haze.

"Hello there." A pretty, curly-haired brunette wearing a red, sleeveless minidress that looked no older than twenty approached us. To the normal human, she probably looked like a young college student. But I'd been in this business for a while now, so to me she obviously looked like a vampire—her pale skin, fluid movements and dark, almost soulless eyes gave her away. "I'm Camille. Welcome to _Plaisir_, Mr. Knight and Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Diamond has asked me to escort you to his office. Is there anything I can get for you? Mr. Diamond said it's the house."

"I'm fine, thank you," Kendall replied.

"No, thank you," I said simply. I didn't care if it was rude or not, I was definitely not having a drink in this place. I looked up at the stage and saw a beautiful, pale blonde vampiress dancing to the loud dance music, stripping down to nothing. The audience was so captivated as many of them held up dollar bills in their hands; it was as if someone had cast a spell on everyone, and, chances are, a very powerful vampire had. This was the place to come if you wanted to be bitten by a vampire, have sex with a vampire; whatever your desire, short of killing you, they provided it.

Camille guided us through the maze of people that wandered through the club to an elevator. She pushed the 'up' button and the doors opened. We stepped into the elevator and she hit a button that I assumed took us to the top floor. Kendall and I looked over at each other inquisitively as the elevator stopped. The doors opened and Camille stepped out first, motioning for us to follow her. She took us down a long, white corridor with fancy chrystal chandeliers, impressionist paintings on the walls and oriental rugs on the cherry hardwood floors. I knew this guy had money, but this was insanity. It made me wonder what his home was like if his club looked like this.

After what seemed to be an eternity, we finally stopped at the door at the end of the hall and Camille knocked on the door. She slowly opened the door and stepped inside. "Mr. Diamond, Mr. Knight and Mr. Mitchell are here to see you."

"Please," I heard a smooth, melodic voice say, "show them in, Camille."

Camille stepped aside and led us into the vast, modern, elegantly designed room and to Mr. Diamond's desk. Mr. Diamond's back was turned to us, obviously on an important phone call. All it gave us was a good look at the back of the vampire's head, which looked pretty damn good. He had shiny, straight chestnut brown hair that was short in the back and appeared to be longer on the top. If that was any indication of what the vampire looked like, then he was probably very handsome, like most vampires. Vampires were designed to be pleasing to the eyes and all the other human senses in every way—that's how they caught their prey. "Please have a seat, gentlemen," she said, showing us to two lush chairs in front of Mr. Diamond's desk. She then took her leave of the room, leaving me and Kendall to sit in wonder as to what in the world was going to happen.

Suddenly, with movements so fast that it was almost as if it didn't happen, Mr. Diamond was facing us, the phone back on its receiver. "Hello, Mr. Knight and Mr. Mitchell. I'm James Diamond, the proprietor of _Plaisir_. Thank you for coming on such short notice." He held out his hand for us to shake. Kendall was the first to take his hand. It was a very brief, reluctant shake. James extended his hand out to me next, which I took. Suddenly, I felt a heat unlike anything I'd ever felt in my life course through my body when we touched. I also felt this strong urge to I looked into his face, so I did. It was too beautiful to be real. He had tanned skinned, which was totally uncommon for a vampire, with rosy cheeks (he must have just fed), a perfectly chiseled jawline, beautiful pink lips that stretched out perfectly when he smiled, and he had a gorgeous set of perfect, white teeth. Without my permission, my eyes drew higher. I knew better. I knew not to do it, but I couldn't help it. I just had to see if that beauty on the lower half of his face continued up the rest of his face. I looked into his eyes, and it was like I was hit by a force not of this world. The most beautiful set of hazel eyes I'd ever seen stared back at me. "It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Mitchell."

I just nodded my head, entranced and unable to form a coherent thought. Such beauty was not humanly possible, but Mr. James Diamond was definitely not human. He was the most beautiful being I'd ever seen.

"Logan!" I suddenly looked over at Kendall, snapped out of the trance and yanked my hand out of James'. Feeling stupid and embarrassed for having looked at James like that, I looked down into my lap. _Fuck_! I knew I wasn't going to hear the end of this when we got back to the office.

"So, Mr. Diamond, what can we do for you?" Kendall asked, nudging me to start taking notes. I pulled out my memo pad. Yeah, it was old-fashioned, but I liked the old way of doing things when it came to detective work. I'd put everything in my computer later.

"Please, call me James. And this meeting is more about what you can do for me as opposed to what I can do for you. Let's face it—if my patrons knew that a killing had occurred tonight, this place would be empty, and I'm quite sure they wouldn't come back, and that's not good for my business."

Kendall scoffed. "Do you really think your…'business' would suffer, James? These people come here for that sense of danger, the adrenaline rush they get from that feeling of terror. You know this as well as I do."

"Yes, but what we offer here at my business, Mr. Knight, is a safe sense of danger. There is no real threat. We are not here to kill the very people that we entertain."

"You call this entertainment?" Kendall was outraged. I looked up momentarily from my notepad to see the anger on his face as he twisted in his seat. "You having vampires feeding off of people and having sex with the clientele is entertainment?"

James gave Kendall a calm, even smile. "Our clientele seems to enjoy it, Mr. Knight. You can judge me all you want, but I don't force anyone to come here. They come of their own free will. I also don't force them to stay; they're free to go as they please. So what you do or don't see as entertainment is really a mute point. I've hired you and Mr. Mitchell to find out who's killing vampires because I cannot. I have the copy of the contract right here. You two did agree to work for me, correct?" James handed the contract to me. "You did draw up this contract, did you not?" James looked over at me, smiling questioningly. "This is your name—Logan Mitchell?"

"Yes, Mr. Diamond. I drew up this contract," I muttered, looking up at his face, but making sure that I didn't look into his eyes. The last thing I needed was to be hypnotized by him, because if anyone could do it, _he_ could.

"So we do have a legal, binding contract? And please, I insist that you call me James. May I call you Logan?" James asked carefully, it evident in his tone that he didn't want to overstep his bounds or offend me.

Just the sound of his smooth, deep voice was doing things to my body that I had no business feeling, especially while I was working. I cleared my throat, hoping that it would help me clear my head as well. "Yes, we have a legal, binding contract…James." Man, just saying his name was doing things to me. "And yes, you may call me Logan."

James smiled brightly at that. "Good. Then I need you to start interviewing my staff. See if they've noticed anything, or anyone, odd. I'll help you in anyway I can, of course."

"Well, I do have a few questions, James," Kendall spoke up.

"Ask away." James turned to face Kendall while I busied myself with the task of taking notes.

"The body that was found tonight, it was not just beheaded and had its heart ripped out, but it had been drained. Yet, when Logan looked over the body, he couldn't find any puncture wounds. Is it possible that a vampire is responsible for doing this?"

James sighed deeply. "Well, I suppose it's possible, even though it's very frowned upon among our kind. We prefer warm, fresh blood, not the cold the blood that is coursing through another vampire. That's why we feed from humans."

"Do you know of any other creature that could possibly be capable of doing this?" I asked. I had quite an extensive knowledge of the supernatural, but I couldn't think of anything that could drain a vampire.

"Not to my knowledge, Logan. I've been a vampire for a very long time, and I have no recollection of any creature that could, or would, do something like this to a vampire." He looked as if he was about to say more when his cell phone rang. He looked at it with concern and anticipation. He'd obviously been waiting for this call. "Hello. Just a moment. I'm in the middle of something." James set the phone down on his desk. "Please excuse me, gentlemen, but I must take this call. I'm sorry to cut this short. Trust me, I'll be in touch. Camille is at the door waiting to show you out." He extended his hand to us, Kendall, of course, giving it a brief shake. When I place my hand in his to shake it, he gripped it snugly and he smiled. "It was nice to meet you both." I nodded quickly as I retrieved my hand. He looked directly at me as he said, "I'll see you again soon." I backed away slowly as I took one last look at James' beautiful face and turned to follow Kendall out of the office, where Camille was, indeed, waiting for us.

Camille led us back downstairs as I avoided looking over at Kendall. I already knew I was going to get an earful from him, so I just decided to wait until we were out of the club to get it.

We walked out of the club and into the cool, night air. "Hey!" Kendall grabbed my arm. "What the hell were you thinking back there, Logan? You do know he's a vampire, right?"

"Not now, Kendall!" I jerked my arm out of his hold. "Let's just get back to the office. Then you can yell at me all you want. But until then, I don't want to hear any shit."

I opened the passenger side door and got into the car. The ride back to office was a silent one. I didn't know what was going on. Maybe he was messing with my head when I was in that office. I knew it was wrong. I knew it was dangerous. I knew it went against everything I believed in. And yet, here I was, fascinated with my newest client, James Diamond—a vampire. I knew this case was going to be dangerous.

_**Please let me know if you want me to continue this. I'm personally having a great time writing it. Thanks for reading, and please review!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_**Author's Note**: Wow! I can't believe the response this fic has received! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I hope you will continue to enjoy this story as much as I do. Have fun, and have a Happy Halloween! I know I will! **(evil laugh)**_

For the next few days after the last vampire killing at the Riverfront, Kendall and I had gotten busy interviewing the employees at _Plaisir_, per James' request, but we'd made very little progress. Whoever was killing these vampires was working very hard _not_ to be found. Every employee that we'd interviewed had either known very little or nothing at all about the killings, which didn't help us. I'd made a habit of going to the strip club before it opened for two reasons. One, I wanted to be focused on the interviews as opposed to focusing on all the stripping and debauchery that would be going on once things got underway at the club. And two, I was doing everything in my power to avoid James and I figured that if I came in before the club opened that he would be too busy getting everything ready that he wouldn't have time to try and talk to me about our progress.

James made me feel things that I shouldn't ever have been feeling about a vampire, and it scared the hell out of me. I had never been one for relationships. I mean, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed sex as much as the next person, as long as it didn't interfere with my work. I owed Dad that much. As a result, I'd pissed off a few lovers in the past, both male and female. I didn't like dealing with clingy people that couldn't seem to understand how important, or how dangerous, my work was, so I'd just decided not to get too close to anyone for a while. And, up to this point, it had worked out well for me.

But James Diamond was different. My attraction to him was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and I couldn't understand it for the life of me. He wasn't even human, for Christ's sake. What the fuck was _wrong_ with me? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to get James off my mind. I had always been a very practical person, and I didn't like dealing with things I didn't understand and, unfortunately, James was one of those things. His eyes haunted me. His beauty astounded me. The heat of his touch lingered long after it was gone. And as good as it had felt to be in his presence, I hated myself for enjoying it. I wasn't supposed to feel that way about a vampire, but I was so mesmerized by him. And since I didn't want to deal with my inexplicable attraction to him, I figured avoidance was the way to go. Besides, I couldn't tolerate another lecture from Kendall about the dangers of becoming a fang-banger.

I looked down at my watch and saw that it was almost opening time—just enough time for me to sneak out before all the freaks came storming into the club. Surprisingly, the news of the death of another vampire hadn't seemed to affect _Plaisir's_ business at all, customers still coming in droves, their addiction or curiosity outweighing any fear they may have had about the possible dangers of coming to the Riverfront. I quickly walked out of the club and started to walk to my car. I was looking forward to heading back to the office for a quiet evening that was drama-free, so I wanted to get away from the Riverfront as soon as I could. Tonight was Halloween, and the Riverfront was especially lively and crowded because of it. This meant that all of the crazies would be coming out of the woodwork, and I was determined to get back to the office before it got too dark.

I looked around at all the people scantilly-clad in Halloween costumes as I passed by them. The cool, blustery night had an inherently sexually-charged atmosphere about it as I watched couples making out to the point of practically having sex all around me. I rolled my eyes as I turned and walked down an alley to get to where I'd parked my car. The long alley was especially creepy at night, so I picked up the pace because the sooner I got to my car, the better.

I was almost at the end of the alley when, suddenly, I heard at least three sets of footsteps behind me and I immediately felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Their movements were fluid and smooth, yet quick—_vampires_. _Holy shit!_ No one else moved like that. On instinct, I reached into my holster and pulled out my gun. My training taking over, I quickly turned around and fired off three shots, one of the bullets catching one of the vampires in the throat as he fell to the ground. I looked around to see that I had four more vampires that I had to contend with. _Shit!_ As if going on automatic, I quickly fired off more shots, shooting one vampire in the leg and the chest as he stumbled forward. I started to fire off more shots when I realized that my clip was empty and needed to be changed. _Dammit_, this was not the time to have to change my clip. I removed the empty clip as I reached into my coat pocket and grabbed another clip. I began to fire more shots when I was grabbed by the throat by a very strong hand. I struggled to gasp for air as I dropped my gun and tried, in vain, to pry the hand that had me in a death grip from my throat. The vampire let out a throaty laugh and banged my head up against a wall—hard—several times, which made me see stars, as the other two stood on either side of him, making sure I was surrounded.

"I'm going to make an example out of you, Mitchell." The vampire bared his fangs as he cackled evilly. My eyes closed as I concentrated on removing the vampire's fingers so I could breathe. "You shouldn't have poked your nose into business that had nothing to do with you. They're gonna be finding pieces of your body for months!"

I opened my eyes, resigning myself to my fate when I saw a familiar face suddenly appear behind the vampire, grab his head with both hands and break his neck, killing him. _It was James!_ I fell forward and ripped the now-dead vampire's fingers from my throat as I coughed and gasped for air. James quickly and easily picked up one of the remaining vampires and bent him over his knee and broke him in half, the sound of bones breaking almost deafening. The last vampire tried to run away, but James caught up to him with lightning speed, grabbing him from behind and slamming him against the wall. "Who the fuck do you work for?" James asked in a calm, yet menacing voice. "Who sent you to kill him?" The vampire wouldn't answer, so James gripped the arm that he was holding behind the vampire's back and twisted it, breaking it. The vampire cried out in pain.

"I don't know, okay?" He cried out. "All I know is a name. I've never even seen him."

"I didn't ask you that," James said, his irritation starting to show. "I asked 'who do you work for'? What's his name?"

The vampire grunted. "Jett. Jett Stetson."

At the sound of the name, James tightened his grip on the vampire, pushing him further into the wall. "I want you to give Jett a message for me. Tell him that if he ever tries to touch Logan Mitchell or his partner Mr. Knight again, he'll be sorry."

"I told you that I've never met him."

James turned him around to face him. "If you don't want to end up like your buddies here," he said, referring to his dead or injured associates laying in the alley, "you'll find a way to get the message to him. Got it?"

"Yes!"

"Get out of here!" James let the vampire go and watched him run off for a few seconds before he rushed over to me. "Logan, are you all right?"

I looked into his face, my vision starting to fade. My head was pounding so hard I thought it might explode. "Uh…"

"Come on, Logan! Talk to me!" James grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and hit a button. "Yes? It's James Diamond. I need a clean-up crew here. Now!" He hung up the phone and picked me up off the ground effortlessly. "Stay with me, Logan."

I wished more than anything at the moment that I could have, but I couldn't. So I did the only thing I could do—I succumbed to the darkness and the pain I was feeling, and everything went black.

* * *

As I started to come to, I felt a dull pain in the back of my head, and my neck hurt from where I had almost been choked to death. I was sure there were bruises all over my neck. I could hear a couple of voices murmuring. I tried to open my eyes, but the light was so intense I immediately shut my eyes again and let out a small groan.

"He must be coming to. I just heard him groan," James said, relief evident in his voice.

"Let's see if he'll let me give him a quick once-over, and then let's get him out of here," a female voice answered him.

"I thought you said he was going to be fine," James replied.

"Relax, James," the female voice tried to reassure him. "I just want to be sure, okay?"

"But what if he's not? I hired him to find out who's doing this. I'm ultimately responsible for what happened to Logan tonight, and I will not risk it happening again." James' voice was adamant.

"Wow, James. I have never seen you like this. Especially over a human. Are you sure that your interest in him is strictly professional?"

"Not now. This is not the time to discuss this with you. I just need to make sure Logan's okay."

"Then let me look him over, James, and I'll leave him to your care, okay?"

"Of course, Kelly."

"I must say, James. You do have excellent taste. He's gorgeous!"

_Me?_ _I_ was gorgeous? Surely they must have been talking about somebody else. I felt someone shake me gently, and I carefully opened my eyes to see James looking down at me, his eyes full of concern. He smiled tenderly as he ran his fingers through my hair, and I swear I could feel that heat stir through my body all over again, just like when we first met. I was looking in his beautiful hazel eyes again, and even as I willed myself to stop, I couldn't help it. I could drown in those eyes.

"How are you feeling, Logan?" He removed his fingers from his hair and stood back to give a pretty African-American woman access to me.

"Um, my head is killing me and my neck hurts really badly. Other than that, I'm great," I said. "Wait a minute." I sat up instantly. "Where the hell am I?"

"Relax, Mr. Mitchell," the woman said, smiling as she layed me back down. I looked around and saw that I was laying on a couch in what looked like James' office. I felt myself instantly relax. For some strange reason, I felt like I could trust her. "I'm Dr. Kelly Wainwright, a friend of James'."

With the way she said 'friend', it suddenly dawned on me. She was a vampire. How did I not recognize it?

"Because you didn't want to," she said, chuckling softly.

"Did you just read my mind? I didn't say anything," I said, feeling myself freaking out a little.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Logan. I'm here to help you. James is very worried about you, you know. Do you remember what happened, Logan?"

I shook my head slowly, cringing when I felt the pain in my neck, and took a deep breath. "I was walking to my car from the club and was attacked by five vampires. I know I shot two of them, but I ran out of bullets and couldn't reload my gun fast enough to stop one of the other three from grabbing me by my neck. He told me that he was going to make an example out of me for sticking my nose where it didn't belong. Then I remember James was suddenly there and…and…and—you saved me." I looked over at James, who gave me a coy smile. "I guess I should thank you for saving my life…so, thank you, James."

"You're welcome, Logan," He smiled again. "Would you like some water? You've been out for a few hours." He held out a glass filled with what looked like water. While I was still uneasy, I didn't believe he would give me doctored water.

"Sure, thanks," I replied, taking the glass and bringing it to my lips. The water felt so good to my dry throat, despite the pain I was currently in.

"Logan," Kelly began, sitting down on the couch beside me, "I would just like to give you a quick examination to make sure you're safe to send home. I examined you earlier, and it seems that you have a mild concussion and contusions around your neck. I recommend that you go see your doctor to make sure everything is all right. I can't prescribe you any pain medicine for that headache, but I can give you some Vicodin to take with you, because you are going to have one hell of a headache for the next couple of days. Take a few days off of work and rest." She flashed a small light in my eyes, which hurt like hell. "You were very lucky that James showed up in that alley, Logan. It could have ended much differently." She shut off the small flashlight and handed me a small bottle with a few pills. "Here's the Vicodin, and please go see your doctor. I've only given you enough to get you through the next twenty-four hours." Kelly stood up. "I hope to see you again, and under different circumstances. See you later, James."

"Thanks, Kelly. Let me walk you out." James showed Kelly to the door, the two of the speaking in hushed voices. All I could make out was Kelly saying, "Let's just hope you know what you're doing."

James walked back into the office and grabbed his coat. "Come on, Logan. I'm taking you home."

"Oh, you don't have to that, James. I know that it's…_shit!_ It's Halloween, and this is a very busy night for you. You don't have to take me home." I moved to a sitting position and tried to stand up, only to fall back onto the couch. It felt like the whole room was spinning.

James ran over to me and held his hand out for me to take. "Yeah, like I'd let you drive like that, Logan. Besides, someone just made an attempt on your life. There's no way I'm letting you go home by yourself."

I looked at his hand and reluctantly took it, feeling the jolt of electricity that shot through me. "Fine," I huffed. I slowly stood up, with James' help, and suddenly thought of something. _Kendall._ He had no idea where I was! I had no idea if he was safe! "Kendall! I've got to talk to him!"

"Don't worry about Kendall!" James tried to reassure me. "I called him and let him know what happened. I also told him not to come here tonight because of the possible danger he could be in. And I put one of my best bodyguards at your office just in case something happens. Trust me. Kendall is fine. Now let's get you home."

"But what about my car? How am supposed to get it back?"

"It's already taken care of. Just relax, Logan." James put his arm around my shoulder as he led me to the elevator. "Why are you so scared of me? Do you honestly think I'm going to hurt you?"

I looked at him and sighed deeply. "It's hard to explain."

"Well, I'd love to hear your explanation," James replied. "I would never do anything to hurt you, Logan. It's going to be really hard for us to work together if you're afraid to even look me in the eyes."

Shocked, I replied, "I never said that." We stepped out of the elevator and James led me out the club through a back entrance and to his black BMW.

"You didn't have to, Logan." He opened the passenger door for me and guided me into his car. He jogged around to the driver's side and got in. He started the engine and looked over at me. "You're practically throwing your thoughts at me."

"Would you please not read my thoughts?" I asked, irritated. I felt like my privacy was being invaded.

"Would you please stop throwing your thoughts at me?" James retorted.

We drove in silence for a while, neither of us seemingly up for a fight, especially since I had a concussion. I just sat there for most of the ride, thinking about how James found me and saved me. "How did you know to find me, James?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"I didn't," James answered. "I didn't know you were in trouble. I just know that I had to talk to you. To see you again. So when I saw you walk out of the club, I followed you so that I could talk to you about the case. Hell, to talk to you about anything, just as long as I got to see you again." James ran his hand through his hair, his frustration obvious.

"What's wrong?" I dared to ask.

"Trust me, you aren't making things easy for me, Logan."

"What the hell does that mean?" I said, immediately becoming defensive.

James sighed. "Nothing."

"Nothing, my ass! You came to me, remember?"

"Of course, I remember! How can I possibly forget? It's all I can think about!" James snapped.

I huffed. "You're not making any sense."

"Don't play dumb, Logan! I know you think about me all the time because I'm doing the same thing. And trust me, it's a complication, but I can't run from it, and neither can you."

I started to get defensive again, but then deflated. "Okay, fine. So we think about each other all the time. What do you suggest we do about it?"

James paused as he pulled into the carport of my duplex, where my car was already parked. _How the hell did he know where I lived? All my information is unlisted. _"I don't know. I know what I want to do, but I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do. Let's just check out your apartment." He turned off the car, stepped out and followed my lead to the front door. I unlocked the door and James held me back. "Don't go in yet. Let me go in with you first and check it out."

"What's stopping you?"

James chuckled lightly and shook his head. "You have to invite me in."

"Oh. Yeah." I felt so embarrassed that I wished I could disappear. "Welcome to my home, James. Please go in."

James smiled down at me playfully. "Why, thank you, Logan." He took my hand firmly in his, the heat flowing through my body again and settling in the pit of my stomach. "Stay close behind me, okay?"

I nodded and let him take the lead. It was pitch black in my apartment, but James had no problem seeing things because of his night vision. After things met to his satisfaction, he turned on a light in the living room and sat down on the couch.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked, confused.

"Staying here until your bodyguard gets here, of course," James replied matter-of-factly.

"Wait, I don't need a babysitter!"

"Well, you did invite me in, and I'm not leaving until I know you're safe. So you're stuck with me, Logan. Goodnight."

"You're fucking kidding me right now, right?"

"No, I'm not. Just think of me as, what did you say, your babysitter." He gave me a bright smile with which I returned with a frown.

"Ugh! I'm going to bed!" I snapped as I walked down the hallway and to my bedroom.

"That's the idea," James called out. "Sweet dreams!" He grabbed the remote to the television and started channel surfing.

I couldn't fucking believe my luck. I had to sleep in my apartment with the vampire that's been haunting my wet dreams every night and he was 'babysitting' me, and I had a concussion on top of that. _Life's such a bitch!_

**_Please review! I hope you had fun reading it! I had a lot of fun writing it! _**


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